Guenmai

Fine...Althom...We just see things differently. When I buy an airplane ticket I see it as a ticket with a meal...and I don't want to have to worry about having to pay for a meal or not.
I can imagine the mess if passengers have to order or not order meals separately. I can't remember how many times my special meal hasn't gotten on the plane and there I sat with no food even after reconfirming. A lot of, "non special-meal" folks will probably end up without meals due to mix ups. Happy Travels!

mrwunrfl

I think that it is a good thing that we don't have to pay for airline food.

DonTopaz

Hi, Guen!

It's true that the airline industry in general is troubled by the world economy and especially high fuel costs. None of the airlines are great, or even good, all of the time. However, United stands out in my mind as being consistently contemptuous of its customers. I don't know of any airline, even charter flights, that will charge for a meal on a flight from the US to Europe. I don't know of any airline anywhere that will charge a <i>business class</i> customer for an in-flight meal. I don't know of any Star Alliance airline that uses an internal software program (StarNet) to prevent their Frequent Flyer program members from having access to award seats that are available on partner airlines. United does all of these.

I accept and acknowledge that many people are loyal to United, and I won't try to dissuade those people from their choice. But it will take an unusual set of circumstances for me to set foot in on their aircraft.

Jen

&quot;charge a business class customer for an in-flight meal&quot;

This is the part that really chaps my a**. I've gone out of my way, sometimes spending extra $$ to be loyal to United to get status and the perks that go with it--including upgrades to business. And what of the folks that are paying business class fares?? I hope I've missed something.

ms_go

There is no charging for meals in business. The memo that leaked earlier in the week was not very well written and ambiguous about meals for those seated in business on US domestic flights using three-class planes. There was never anything in the internal memo about charging for meals in international business. United's press release issued last night clarifies, I think, for now:

http://tinyurl.com/67xkc9

mrwunrfl

ms_go you are just confusing us with the facts. It is a lot more difficult to get spun up that way.

Jen

ms_go-
ah. that release is much clearer. I read the original memo as saying that they were testing selling the buy-on-board meal in business on the IAD-LHR route. Looking back at it again, it can also be read that the BOB meals are complimentary. Very weirdly written!

thanks for the link.

WillJame

Check the recent NY Times article entitled &quot;At Least the Airsickness Bags Are Free&quot; at http://tinyurl.com/6dmka7
You'll find a whole litany of add-on &quot;services&quot; there.
Paying for meals? Well, I've bought my own food in advance for a flight, only to discover that a meal was provided after all. And, I've been prepared to buy an onboard meal but they ran out of them before they got to my seat.

Kathie

To me, the idea of charging for a meal in economy is the least offensive fee. The food is typically terrible anyway.

I think they should charge fees for carry on bags instead of for checked baggage. It's the people with too many or too big carry ons that hold up flights.

DonTopaz

Kathie, I think you're missing the other side of the equation: cutting down on the number of employees. United wants to encourage people to use carry-ons instead of checked baggage, so that UA can employ fewer baggage handlers. If that means that it takes longer to load flights, they'll just tell people to show up at the gate earlier and start loading the planes earlier.

Similar thing with meals. United mentions in the memo that serving fewer meals will allow them to use fewer flight attendants -- in fact, they'll use the minimum number of FAs permitted by federal regulations.

Probably the only thing less fun than flying on United is working for United.

Kathie

No doubt you're right, rizz. Sigh, I'm more or less &quot;married&quot; to United for the time being.

AskOksena

... well, I presently fly Asia-North America every month for work, and approximately four/five times a year, I fly UA business class trans-pacs, and must confess, I've almost always been rather content. (Helps having my cherished, special seats, and various crews who know me.)

(Mind you, I'll always be an SIA loyalist and proud SQ PPS - my Singapore Air-forever wife would expect nothing less - but I've enjoyed 1K status with UA . Systemwide upgrades and CR-1s I utilize to fly first from SFO to Paradise and those warm Hawaiian waters. And, those miles racked up on UA are put to good use, flying first for free with mrs. m on SQ and TG.

I've had the honour of flying with some truly fine former Singapore Girls on certain UA NRT-SIN and HKG-SIN flights. And, a lovely Thai woman, who works NRT-BKK.

And, must say, I've had numerous delightful encounters with other UA FAs. And, if they can be cordial to me, someone whose somewhat debased pre-mrs. lifestyle consisted of the occasional joyous times with various Asian women in various Asian hotels, well, suspect they could be kind to you. (Provided you're kind to them.)

(But now, can't resist, and please don't tell mrs. m: about a fortnight back, I flew TG677 First, Narita to Bangkok, and man, Thai Airways has yet another super-skinny, full-on stunner working the front of the plane. Gotta give it up to TG every now and then. (And that Royal Orchid Spa is as good as ever.)

As always, savour your airborne times ... (and late-night, in-room massage treatments) ...

macintosh (robert)


... fly the friendly skies ...

DonTopaz

macintosh makes an excellent point: United's in-flight service within Asia is usually excellent. And, they do make collecting miles for free relatively easy with their credit card(s) program. Which makes them a very reasonable choice when lots of your travel is to/from/between places (such as HI, SEA) where UA has little or no competition from non-US carriers.

simpsonc510

I find the flight from NRT to BKK to be quite pleasant, with a mostly Thai crew on UA. The ORD to NRT crew isn't so friendly or happy!!

Kathie

I really can't complain about UA's biz class service to and from Asia and within Asia. I've almost always had excellent service (I can think of only one flight in many years with a rude flight attendant in Biz).

But, of course, with the US, it's often a different matter. I try to fly first as often as possible, and all of those comp upgrades are much appreciated.

As rizz points out their credit cards make getting miles easy (I have both a personal and a business cc collecting United miles).